Shoulder Pain

A sprain in the shoulder involves the ligaments while a strain involves the muscles around the shoulder. A sprain or strain can happen when the muscles or ligaments around your should have been overstretched too quickly and micro-tearing of those tissue has occurred. Micro-tears can cause painful inflammation that keep getting worse if you move or try to use those damaged tissues. As we get older, we become more prone to this type of injury because our muscles and ligaments become less elastic.

Physical therapy can make a big difference if you need to recover from a sprain or strain of the shoulder. Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will start by focusing on reducing your pain and inflammation. Once the inflammation is under control, they will work with you to help you regain your full range of motion and strength. Since our goal is to help you achieve a healthy, pain-free lifestyle your therapist will also educate and provide exercises you can do at home to help you prevent future injury to your shoulder.

Shoulder dislocation typically happens when someone falls onto an outstretched arm or receives a blow on the side or back of the shoulder when falling on it. The first step with a dislocation is to relocate the head of the humerus bone back to its proper position. If you experienced a severe dislocation or it is happening on a regular basis, your doctor will prescribe physical therapy to help stabilize your shoulder joint and protect it while it recovers. Strengthening the muscles around the shoulder can help prevent future dislocations.

If your dislocation was severe and resulted in tearing of cartilage, tendons, ligaments, or muscles you may need to begin with surgery. After surgery physical therapy is an important part of recovery and returning to normal activities.

Whether you need surgery or not, physical therapy is very important to make the fullest recovery possible. Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will carefully assess your injury and work with you and your doctor to protect the damaged joint while it heals. Our goal is to help you strengthen all the muscles and recover full range of motion so you can get back to the activities you love as quickly as possible. Eliminating pain and preventing future recurrence is important to us, so your therapist will also teach you how you can keep your shoulder strong in the future.

The labrum is a thick ring of cartilage around the socket part of your shoulder joint (glenohumeral joint). The labrum acts like a cup for the head of the humerus to sit in (like a ball inside a cup). The labrum provides stability to the joint and helps cushion as the shoulder joint moves through its 180 degrees of motion.

Labrum tears can be caused by a blow to an outstretched arm, from repetitive strain when your arm is extended overhead, or when the rotator cuff is torn. A common type of labrum tear is called a SLAP lesion (Superior Labral tear from Anterior to Posterior). This is a tear of the labrum from the top part in front to back. Some labrum tears require surgery before they will start healing, but whether you need surgery or not, physical therapy is important to regain maximum function. Our first step is to eliminate pain and swelling, then we can start therapies to improve your range of motion.

Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will carefully assess your injury and work with you and your doctor to get you back to the activities you love as quickly as possible. Eliminating pain and preventing a future labrum tear is important to us, so your therapist will also teach you how you can keep your shoulder strong in the future.

Frozen shoulder is a painful problem with the shoulder joint. The medical term is “adhesive capsulitis”. Frozen shoulder can occur after an accident that affects the shoulder or due to repetitive injuries. While men can experience frozen shoulder, it seems to impact women in the pre and post–menopausal age range the most.

With frozen shoulder, is the result of chronic inflammation to the thick capsule of tissue that surrounds the shoulder joint. The body begins a cycle of inflammation and scarring that causes the capsule around the shoulder joint to contract and become limited in flexibility. The result is a lot of pain when you try to you’re your arm.

The onset of frozen shoulder can be the most painful as your range of motion becomes more and more limited. After a month or two your range of motion is still very limited but there often is a decrease in the amount of pain. Frozen shoulder takes time to resolve. In severe cases it can take a year to help patients recover their previous range of motion.

Physical therapy is one of the best things you can do to shorten the time it takes to recover from frozen shoulder, and the earlier you start the better. By reducing that inflammatory cycle we can reduce the scarring and contraction of your shoulder capsule. Physical therapy and medication can also limit the pain.

Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert has worked with many frozen shoulder patients to reduce pain quickly and restore range of motion. During the first stage the goal is to reduce inflammation and pain with specialized therapy and exercises. Then during the “thawing” phase your therapist will work to improve your range of motion and restore strength so you can get back to the activities you love as quickly as possible. The sooner you start treatment the shorter the time you’ll have to suffer with frozen shoulder.

The “rotator cuff” is actually a group of muscles that surround your shoulder. They are made up of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, sub–scapularis and teres minor muscles. While these muscles are small and individually not very powerful, they play an essential role in moving your shoulder. Without your rotator cuff, you would not be able to lift your arm very far from your side. Your rotator cuff guides the direction of the humerus head down and spins it so that it clears the bony shelf above the socket called the acromion. If your rotator cuff is weak or damaged, the head of the humerus bone goes the wrong direction and keeps banging into the acromion.

Your rotator cuff takes a lot of abuse over a lifetime and tearing is very common as people grow older. Your rotator cuff can be damaged from a sports injury, a fall where you land on your shoulder or arm, repetitive lifting or movements, poor posture, or improper exercise technique when lifting weights overhead. People who have jobs that require them to regularly lift things above their heads are at higher risk for rotator cuff injuries.

Rotator cuff injuries cause pain and inflammation. With small tears, physical therapy can substantially reduce pain, improve your range of motion, and allow you to lead an active lifestyle without any problems. If you have a severe tear, it can require surgery before it will start healing. If you need surgery recovery will probably take three to six months. Physical therapy is important to prepare for surgery and to recovery as quickly as possible.

Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will carefully assess your injury and work with you and your doctor to improve your shoulder range of motion, restore proper joint mobility, reduce inflammation, relieve pain, and improve the strength of your rotator cuff. Our goal is to get you back to the activities you love as quickly as possible and keep your rotator cuff healthy and strong in the future, so your therapist will also educate and provide exercises you can continue in the future.

Shoulder impingement occurs when your shoulder’s rotator cuff tendons are overused or injured. This causes pain and limits your movement.

Symptoms can include:

• Pain that increases with activity and continues afterwards
• Pain that radiates from the front of your shoulder to the side of your arm
• Pain when throwing a ball
• Sudden pain when you lift or reach out for something

The good news is that Shoulder Impingement/Rotator Cuff Tendonitis can usually be relieved with therapy and doesn’t require surgery. However, a careful diagnosis is essential to determine that this is the problem and not something more severe like a rotator cuff tear. Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will carefully assess your symptoms in collaboration with your doctor. They will put together a personalized treatment plan to improve your shoulder’s range of motion, reduce inflammation, relieve pain, and improve the strength of your rotator cuff. Our goal is to get you back to the activities you love as quickly as possible and keep your rotator cuff healthy and strong in the future, so your therapist will also educate and provide exercises you can continue in the future.

The suffix “itis” means inflammation. Bursitis is inflammation of a bursa and tendonitis is inflammation of a tendon.

Bursa–A bursa is a fluid-filled sac between muscles or tissues to cushion and reduce friction. For instance, your shoulder has a large bursa between the deltoid muscle and the joint called the sub-deltoid bursa. This bursa can often become inflamed due to abnormal joint movements, poor posture, or weakness of the muscles around your shoulder. Any of those problems can cause strain to the muscles and ligaments and excessive friction on the bursa which will then become inflamed. If you have bursitis, you will likely feel pain when you move your shoulder, especially reaching to the side or behind you.

Tendonitis–Tendons connect muscles to bones. The most common areas for tendonitis in your shoulder are the rotator cuff tendons (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis) and bicep tendons. If you have tendonitis in your shoulder, you may feel pain deep in your shoulder or in the front of it. This type of pain is typically a sharp stabbing sensation when you move in a way that irritates those inflamed tendons.

The good news is that Bursitis and Tendonitis can usually be relieved with therapy and don’t require surgery. However, a careful diagnosis in collaboration with your doctor is essential to determine that this is the problem and not something more severe like a rotator cuff tear. Since most bursitis and tendonitis is due to underlying abnormal mechanics of movement and weakness, your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will evaluate your movement to pinpoint the exact source of the trouble so they can develop the best treatment plan for your needs. Our goal is to get you back to the activities you love as quickly as possible, so your therapist will also show you gentle strengthening exercises and joint coordination exercises you can continue in the future to prevent recurrence.

Shoulder fractures most commonly happen when someone has a fall that directly impacts your shoulder. If you have osteoporosis (thinning and weakening of bone) even a mild to moderate impact can cause a fracture. Fractures in the shoulder occur for a variety of reasons, but typically from a fall onto the shoulder itself. Fractures can occur in seniors also due to osteoporosis

Your therapist’s initial goal if you have a shoulder fracture is to stabilize the joint so it can stay in a safe position for the bone to heal while still maintaining a useful range of motion. Recovery typically takes about eight weeks. As soon as the fracture has healed enough your therapist will work on building strength and restoring your full range of motion. If your fracture was severe enough to require surgery, you will need physical therapy to recover normal range of motion and strength. Surgery is disruptive to muscles and connective tissue, so recovery from fracture surgery typically takes twelve to sixteen weeks for recovery.

Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will carefully assess your injury and work with you and your doctor to put together a comprehensive plan to restore range of motion, reduce inflammation, relieve pain, and improve the strength of your shoulder. Our goal is to get you back to the activities you love as quickly as possible and keep your shoulder healthy and strong in the future, so your therapist will also educate and provide exercises you can continue in after your therapy sessions at Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy have been completed.

There are a different types of shoulder surgery that may be necessary to stabilize your shoulder or repair damaged tendons and ligaments. Thanks to advances in arthroscopic surgery, recovery times for shoulder injuries are better than ever before, but physical therapy is still essential to reduce pain, restore range of motion, improve strength, and get you back to the things you love to do as quickly as possible. After you have shoulder surgery you may have difficulty with sleeping, bathing, dressing and other daily activities.

Your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert will work with you and your surgeon to identify the ideal combination of therapies to help you recover as quickly as possible and how to temporarily adapt to the limitations while you shoulder heals. Our first goal is to reduce the inflammation and eliminate the pain. Then as quickly as possible your therapist will start working with you to restore your range of motion, increase your strength, and help you return to all the things you love to do that were impacted by your shoulder problems. At Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy our goal is to help you keep your shoulders healthy and strong into the future, so your therapist will also educate and provide exercises you can continue after your therapy sessions at Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy have been completed.

At Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy our experts don’t just treat your symptoms. We take the time to understand the root cause of your pain so we can develop the optimum plan to promote healing. Your therapist won’t just help you get better, they will also provide education and exercises with the goal of helping you achieve a healthy, strong, and pain free lifestyle.